We've been car-less since about March because Paul's trusty Cheverolet bit the dust and we weren't sure if we really needed a car living here in DC, so we didn't look into getting another one right away. It turns out we kind of do need at least one car, there are just a lot of places where Metro doesn't run and a lot of errands that can't be accomplished without some mode of mechanized transport. To wit: we've been ordering our groceries from an online delivery service which mostly works out okay, but then the other night they were supposed to bring the groceries between 7 and 9 pm and they didn't show up until almost midnight and Paul's Haagen Daz Caramel Cone was totally melted and that just isn't cool. Okay, it was OUR Haagen Daz Caramel Cone. When I got on the phone to complain, the woman told me that she would refund our delivery charge "this once" but that they don't guarantee delivery so they wouldn't give us that refund if it happened again. So basically, all those other times that they showed up when they supposed to were just happy coincidences; they don't guarantee their delivery times so I should consider myself lucky that I happened to get the groceries delivered when I was home to receive them. If you can't guarantee the times, what is point of having the times? The delivery is the service that I'm paying for! That's what you do! I could go to Giant and battle the lines and the substandard produce and the screaming kids in the candy aisle but that's what I'm paying you for.
So we need a car. And of course, whole new set of hassles. Yesterday I got this notice from the DMV saying that we owed this $150 fine because our insurance had been cancelled on our vehicle. When I called them, I politely explained that we had sold that vehicle and that's why the insurance had been cancelled. But THEY (not-so-nicely) explained that because the insurance had been cancelled before they had the physical license plates back, that our insurance was considered lapsed and therefore we would have to pay. Now, I am in the habit of complying with the law. I had even called my stepfather, who was a Virginia state cop, to ask him what we should do with these license plates (because in other states I've lived in, you just throw them away or, if you're in Alabama, you can use them to make a decorative statement.) He told me that I should surrender them in person in case someone got ahold of them and wanted to use them for nefarious purposes. Of course, the DMV has no hours that they're open on the weekends, so you have to take pretty much the entire day off to go wait in their lines, and so they didn't get these license plates back until a few weeks after the car was sold. Thus - $150 fine. Not that I'm not blaming Charlie, because Virginia is a normal state with normal laws. How can they try and charge us $150 fine for a lapse in insurance on a car we DON'T EVEN OWN anymore?
This is what politicians don't understand. See, it's not stuff like gay marriage and abortion and the war in Iraq that really impact people's day-to-day lives. I know it sounds shallow, but it's true. It's stuff like this. It's having to wait in line for hours at the DMV and being charged arbitrary fines for ridiculous shit, so you can't afford to replace your Carton of Caramel Cone. It's being condescended to and spoken to rudely by municipal employees. It's being jerked around! I once contested a parking ticket I got in New York on a rental car because it said I was within 36 inches of a fire hydrant. I painstakingly measured the distance with a tape measure and took photos and documented the fact that I was well over 36 inches away from the fire hydrant. They took about three months to write me back and tell me that yes, I was more than 36 inches away from the hydrant, but the rule said you had to be 50 inches away. YOU SAID 36!!!! How can you say 36 and then go back and say 50? That doesn't make any sense! You are just trying to screw me! And there is nothing I can do about it and I hate you and your ass face!!!!!!
GAH!
I really want to get my daddy down here in his state trooper uniform and make him take me to the DMV so I can say, "This man says that this is bullshit, and he has a gun, which I think lends an authoratative air to his opinion."